More “fun” than a barrel full of analgesic balm, Scott Gomez predicted would be his first Devils series as a Ranger. He is an inspiration to masochists everywhere.

If playing with bruised ribs is fun, if getting booed every time you touch the puck by fans who once adored you is fun, then this figured to be a hoot even before Gomez set up three goals in the Rangers’ 4-1 Game 1 win.

Early in the second period, he dropped the puck off to Brendan Shanahan and went to the net to help screen his drive from the half-boards. In the third, Gomez fed ahead to Ryan Callahan, kept a rebound alive so Callahan could force a shorthanded game winner through Martin Brodeur, then fed Sean Avery’s putaway goal with a two-on-one pass between Sergei Brylin’s legs.

Granted, Gomez also got caught hooking Bryce Salvador, if marginally, costing the Rangers a Devils power play opportunity that Paul Martin converted.

But as Al Arbour wrote on the team blackboard before every playoff game while the Islanders were winning 19 straight playoff series, “Winning is Fun!” And having more jump than he has had in weeks, Gomez clearly was having a blast, even if he refuses to give the Devils fans a blast for turning him into the Worst Human Being Who Ever Lived.

“He doesn’t make a big deal out of getting booed every time he touches the puck,” said coach Tom Renney. “A person certainly could, but he chooses not to and it allows his teammates to concentrate being the New York Rangers.”

Good training for that came from being a New Jersey Devil, which Gomez acknowledges at every opportunity, even if he took $51 million to cross the Hudson to Fun City.

Despite a failure to form much chemistry with Jaromir Jagr, despite the Rangers’ point problems on the power play, Gomez had 70 points in 81 games, .86 per game, a slight increase to his scoring pace in seven years as a Devil (.82).

But he crashed the boards March 21 in Philadelphia, luckily escaping a fracture, not so luckily having to play through bruised cartilage, which can hurt just as much, if not take as long to heal.

“He is feeling better, no question,” said Renney. “But he is going to compete no matter what his body is telling him anyway.”

Whatever Gomez’s body is telling him, he’s not telling anybody how he really feels, throwing out thigh and toe problems last night to reporters in order not to answer questions about what’s really been ailing him. If the ribs still are, it could have fooled the Devils, whom Gomez said only a fool would now write off.

“They will respond,” he said, as will their fans, louder than ever to Gomez for his Game 1 villainy.